Couldn't Live Without You, I Guess
by Harmonicalock
Summary: Tony DiNozzo was on a date. But that wasn't the weird part. He was on a date with Ziva David.


The second last fic of this crazy saga ! Note to self – never plan anything with less than a weeks' notice ever again ! I finished this literally about ten minutes ago and half way through today I was at the point of giving up on it and coming up with a new idea (which also would not have worked because, although I do work well under pressure most of the time, there is a limit). Also, I'm ill and half asleep right now so for all I know this authors note is a load of jumbled gobbledegook (I managed to spell gobbledegook right first time though, that was pretty impressive !).

So yeah, this is not my best work, but I got it done which in itself was pretty impressive. I hope you like it and it doesn't suck, let me know what you think !

Again, massive shout out to Alex for not punching me when I kept throwing this in your face in History today and keeping me calm at lunch when I was about to throw pieces of paper at someone, I owe you big time for that.

Quote of the title – "Couldn't Live Without You, I Guess" – Tony DiNozzo, NCIS – When they go to Somalia to avenge Ziva.

…...

Tony DiNozzo was on a date. But that wasn't the weird part. He was on a date with Ziva David. An undercover date, that was for the sole purpose of finding out which bartender was acting paranoid enough to have witnessed the murder of a marine captain, but a date all the same. And they both found it very strange indeed.

They were sitting opposite each other at a small table decorated by a flickering candle and small confetti hearts. They both agreed it was sickening. Their job was to act like a normal couple on a normal date, but they weren't really sure how to do that. They had been there for nearly ten minutes without saying much more that "that's one of them" and "have you seen the ugly painting on the wall", before Gibbs barked in to their earwigs.

"For Gods sake you two, act more like a couple. You're worse than my ex-wives." Everyone laughed but Gibbs (of course) was right. Tony didn't know how he was supposed to act on a date with his partner. She was more than that, she was his best friend.

He had to start a conversation though, pretend like this wasn't the most awkward thing in the world. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend it was just another day at work with the two of them. "I watched 'Four Weddings And A Funeral' yesterday, Hugh Grant is a genius." Ziva smiled and looked in to his eyes for the first time all night. Everything was going to be just fine.

….

The 'date' was going great. Drinks had been drunk, food had been declined (no matter how well they were doing they were still hoping to get out of there ASAP) and the conversation was still flowing. They had moved on to British Accents – Ziva defending them and Tony imitating them. He was in the middle of being a very posh British woman talking about going to tea with the queen when McGee interrupted him.

"Guys, Santûoro is staring right at you, I thinks he's suspicious."

Ziva pretended to laugh at her date. "How can he be suspicious of us McGee, he doesn't know who we are ?" She hissed.

Gibb's voice appeared in their ears again. "Because you're uncomfortable and you look like cops." He paused. "And DiNozzo's awful British accent isn't helping matters."

Ziva burst out laughing for real this time, McGee chuckling as well. Tony pulled a comical offended face, making Ziva laugh even more.

Once she regained control of herself, she glanced up and saw Santûoro still glaring at them. A sigh came through the earwig, McGee had seen the problem as well.

Tony was nervous, a rarity for him. He had been in the situation where his cover had been blown before and, especially when they were trying to keep the case low profile, it was never good.

He knew he had to do something but for some reason there was only one idea in his head, and it certainly wasn't ideal. In the corner of his eye, he saw Santûoro marching towards them, clearly ready for a confrontation. He had to act fast.

In a moment of impulsivity, he leant forward and kissed Ziva. She was, unsurprisingly, stunned and froze for a couple of seconds. As she realised what was happening, she relaxed and began to kiss him back. What felt like an eternity later, though in reality it was probably only about 20 seconds, McGee spoke.

"Um, sorry to be the one interrupting this, but Santûoro's walking away now, you seem to have scared him off." The pair slowly pulled apart, slightly out of breath and still staring in to each other's eyes. Neither of them was quite sure what to do next.

"Meet back in the bull pen in ten minutes, you're done in there." Gibbs ordered them. The agents simultaneously jumped to their feet and had to stop themselves from sprinting for the door. They linked arms as they walked and tried to act like a loved up couple and less like people who had just had the most terrifying experience of their lives.

They drove back to the Navy Yard in complete silence, not knowing what to say. Tony was struggling to focus on driving, his mind kept going back to what happened. He had kissed Ziva. Ziva was his partner. No, she was his best friend. And he kissed her. It was weird. But it was also… good? In a way, it felt right .

As they were heading up in the elevator, his mind was still whirring, still trying to process what had happened. He hadn't even been able to look Ziva in the eye since it happened, and he was sure she was doing the same.

As they walked in to the big orange room, McGee's head instantly popped up and stared in their direction. More discretely, Gibbs turned to look at them as well. They both knew what had happened and, for once, they didn't know how to react. What do you say to your teammates after they just snogged each other's faces off? As the pair dropped their bags heavily dropped their bags by their desks, Gibbs found his words and their voice of reason spoke.

"All of you, go home. We can pick up Santûoro tomorrow, see if he'll tell us why he was being so shifty. " McGee all but sprinted for the door, not prepared to have either of his co-workers try to talk to him about the kiss. Not that it was a big deal, he reasoned, it was just part of the job.

The other agents remained in the bull pen a little longer. Gibbs was still tapping away at his computer, doing whatever it was he did when the rest of the world was at home and asleep, and Tony and Ziva were packing up their equipment from the cover. Just as they were putting the final pieces in to boxes, Gibbs appeared between their desks.

"You two need to figure this out and fast. It was just a kiss, and it wasn't even you kissing, it was your aliases. Things happen on cases, you just have to accept it and move on. Sort it out and by tomorrow youd better be back to your normal borderline inappropriate selves." With that, the boss left, the elevator door pinging shut behind him. The remaining agents continued to stare at each other in silence. It was a few seconds before Ziva spoke.

"So, um, that was an interesting evening." Tony pulled his face in to a smile, trying his best to act normal. He just couldn't manage it, and Ziva wasn't doing too brilliantly either. Gibbs was right, they needed to figure this out. But there seemed to be far more feelings involved that he had anticipated, and they made everything a hundred times harder.

"Tony, that kiss…"  
"Ziva, I really…" They both began speaking at the same time, quickly cutting themselves off.

"You go first." Tony said. It seemed as though he was just being polite but really he just wanted to stall on what he was about to tell her. And whatever she said may render his feelings irrelevant anyway. It was probably better that was, he tried to convince himself, less messy.

Ziva interrupted his thoughts, her usually soft voice cutting through the tension like a knife. "Tony, the kiss, it felt like it meant something, at least to me it did. now, I understand that you do not feel the same way but I just wanted to say it so, like Gibbs said, we can move on and go back to what we had before because, Tony, I couldn't bear to lose you."

Wow. He had not been expecting that. When the power of speech returned to him, his voice was calm and gentle – he couldn't screw this up. "And what if I did? Feel the same, that is."

Ziva was frozen, unmoving and stunned. She had clearly not expected that.

"What would happen between us? Would we try to go back to how things were, letting the knowledge tear us apart? Or would we act on it? Would we go out together, on real dates that weren't us trying to catch a murderer? Would we spend all our time together, even if we're just enjoying each other's company? Because, I've got to say, I really like the second one and I honestly think we could make it work."

Ziva took a deep breath and nodded. "I would like that too." She replied, still too stunned to say much more.

Tony smiled his trademark DiNozzo grin at her, his way of showing that they were back to normal. "Walk you out?" He asked, trying to be a gentleman for his lady. They picked up their bags and walked to the elevator.

They were back in silence again, but this time it was a comfortable silence and neither of them would have wanted anything else. They were in a pretty odd situation, and it didn't help that they would be breaking one of Gibbs' top rules by doing this, but they knew they were going to make it work. Everything was going to be just fine.

…...

By the way, I'm sorry the kissing part is so bad, I really don't know what I'm doing with that sort of thing.

I'm thinking about continuing this, obviously they would need to clean up the case (which could get a bit awkward considering the dating isn't fake anymore) but I'm open to suggestions from after that point.


End file.
